Wednesday Video Spotlight: Flaming Lips on Conan
Oklahoma City-based freakout rockers The Flaming Lips released their new album “Embryonic” Tuesday and capped their big day by performing the song “Watching the Planets” on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”
I stayed up late to watch the performance and it was definitely worth a little missed sleep. You should definitely view the YouTube clip posted above. After seeing it, I’m convinced I need to get a gong for home use. Since I have two kids and am considering purchasing a percussion instrument with that much noise-making potential, you know it’s a life-changing performance.
As a bonus, check out this YouTube video of the Lips playing “SpongeBob & Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy,” their contribution to “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” soundtrack, on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” back in 2004. Many thanks to former The Oklahoman intern Nathan Poppe for sharing this video clip.
-BAM
Video Spotlight: The Flaming Lips
As we wrap up Flaming Lips Day here on BAM’s Blog, let’s take a look at some of the band’s amazing music videos, including the first one from new album “Embryonic”:
The Flaming Lips "I Can Be A Frog"
The Flaming Lips | MySpace Music Videos
-BAM
Flaming Lips to host yearly March of 1,000 Skeletons at Oklahoma City’s Ghouls Gone Wild
The Flaming Lips will again host their March of 1,000 Skeletons Oct. 24 at the Ghouls Gone Wild Halloween Parade.
The parade, organized by the Oklahoma Gazette, will begin at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 in downtown Oklahoma City at 11 and Walker.
Rockabilly pioneers The Collins Kids will be the parade grand marshals and will perform. Lips proteges Stardeath and White Dwarfs also will perform.
For more information on the parade, go to www.ghoulsgonewildokc.com.
If you’re interested in joining the Lips’ March of 1,000 Skeletons, click here for instructions.
-BAM
New releases for Oct. 13, 2009
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips (Photo by John Clanton/The Oklahoman Archives)
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips release today their first-ever double-album “Embryonic,” which promises to make the world a little more weird – but in a good way.
Brandon Jenkins
Also, red dirt rocker Brandon Jenkins, who grew up in Tulsa but now lives in Austin, Texas, releases his new album, “Brothers of the Dirt,” which as the title suggests, features collaborations with fellow red dirt artists, including Cody Canada, Stoney LaRue and Mike McClure.
“Drag Me to Hell,” Sam Raimi’s (the “Spider-Man” movies) return to the horror genre, is among the new films on DVD this week.
In books, Irish author Eoin Colfer (“Artemis Fowl”) picks up where the late, great Douglas Adams left off with “And Another Thing…,” a sixth book in the legendary “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series.
Stephenie Meyer (Associated Press photo)
And as the anticipation for the movie sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” builds, “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer releases a collector’s edition of “New Moon” and her “Twilight Saga Journals.”
The soundtrack for “New Moon” will be released on Friday.
Here is a list of this week’s new CDs, DVDs and books from Amazon.com, VideoETA.com and BarnesandNoble.com:
CDs
The Flaming Lips, “Embryonic.”
Brandon Jenkins, “Brothers of the Dirt.”
Bob Dylan, “Christmas in the Heart.”
David Archuleta, “Christmas From the Heart.”
Neil Diamond, “A Cherry Cherry Christmas.”
Barry Manilow, “In The Swing of Christmas.”
Five For Fighting, “Slice.”
Jack Bruce, “Seven Moons Live.”
Various artists, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack” – releasing Friday.
DVDs
American Violet
Drag Me to Hell
The Haunted Airman
Jackass: The Lost Tapes
Land of the Lost
Legend of the Seeker: The Complete First Season
Married… With Children: Complete Eleventh Season
Natural Born Killers
The Proposal
Books
“Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series No. 4)” by Jeff Kinney
“And Another Thing… (Hitchhiker’s Guide Series No. 6)” by Eoin Colfer
“Chronic City” by Jonathan Lethem
“Deep Kiss of Winter” by Kresley Cole
“Dracula: The Un-Dead” by Dacre Stoker
“Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters” by Chesley B. Sullenberger
“Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals” by Jamie Oliver
“Moon River and Me: A Memoir” by Andy Williams
“New Moon: Collector’s Edition” by Stephenie Meyer
“Nine Dragons” by Michael Connelly
“Pursuit of Honor” by Vince Flynn
“Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You” by Deepak Chopra
“Twilight Saga Journals” by Stephenie Meyer
-BAM
Flaming Lips to open pop-up store, do MySpace Secret Show in L.A.
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne performs at the 2008-09 New Year’s Eve Freakout in Oklahoma City. (Photo by John Clanton/The Oklahoman Archives)
Warner Bros. Records is celebrating today’s release of The Flaming Lips’ new, long-awaited album “Embryonic” with special events in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, for one day only in Los Angeles, The Flaming Lips Pop-up Store will open at the Nike/Ricardo Montalban Theater, 1615 Vine St. in Hollywood, according to a news release. The store will be open from noon to midnight local time.
Not only will fans have the opportunity to get their hands on unique artifacts available on this day and location only, but the Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers have planned a very special, intimate MySpace Secret Show performance just for tickets winners at this small venue guaranteed to blow the minds of the lucky few.
According to the release, this might be the only opportunity to see the band in full-blown, maximum hysteria in a minimal space ever again. You won’t get the change to see the LIPS live again until 2010!
Tickets for the event will be made available on a first come, first served basis at the opening on Thursday. Additional tickets will be available at Amoeba records with purchase of the Lips CD today. KCRW 89.9 FM and the LA Weekly will also participate in ticket give-a-ways so play close attention.
Ticket holders are not guaranteed seating. All ticket holders will need to be in the venue by 7:30 p.m. L.A. time. Theater doors will be open 6:30.
The Flaming Lips Pop-up Store will house unique, limited edition, one-of-a-kind merchandise, CD’s and much more. Among the exclusive goodies will be the special direct-to-consumer “Furry Package,” currently available only via FlamingLips.com and a very limited, one-time only vinyl pressing that will only be sold at the store.
While the news release implies that this will be the last chance to see the Lips live until 2010, that isn’t true for Oklahoma fans. The Lips are planning their March of 1,000 Skeletons later this month in OKC.
And for the third year, the band will perform a New Year’s Eve show at Oklahoma City’s Cox Convention Center. For more information or tickets, go to www.coxconventioncenter.com.
-BAM
Flaming Lips performing tonight on “Tonight Show”
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips will appear tonight on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” The show airs at 10:35 p.m. on NBC (KFOR-4 in Oklahoma City).
The band releases its first double-album, “Embryonic,” today.
Conan’s other guests tonight include Ice-T and one of my all-time favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard.
-BAM
Flaming Lips Day on BAM’s Blog
The Flaming Lips (Photo by J. Michelle Martin)
Loyal readers of BAM’s Blog know that I’ve been celebrating this fall’s big album releases from Oklahoma music stars by dedicating a day in their honor.
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic freakout rockers extraordinaire The Flaming Lips are releasing their first-ever double-album, “Embryonic,” today. In honor of the birth, it’s Flaming Lips Day here at BAM’s Blog. I’ll be bringing you Lips-related news, pictures and videos throughout the day.
I just got my hot hands on “Embryonic,” and I can’t wait to hear the freakiness the Lips have in store for us.
-BAM
Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne to help pick 2010-11 Fulbright-mtvU Fellows
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips (Photo by Chris Landsberger/The Oklahoman Archives)
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and mtvU announced today that a new slate of leading musical artists will review and help nominate candidates for the 2010-11 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships.
The review panel includes: Wayne Coyne, lead singer and songwriter of Oklahoma City-based band The Flaming Lips; Kim Gordon, who in addition to being a founding member of Sonic Youth, one of the leading progressive-rock groups of our time, is also an established artist and curator; Tom Morello, the Grammy Award-winning American guitarist of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club and also known under his folk alter-ego The Nightwatchman; and Beth Ditto, American singer from indie rock band Gossip.
The fellowships, administered by the Institute of International Education, were established to promote the “power of music” as a global force for mutual understanding. Applications for the 2010-11 fellowships are being accepted now through Oct. 19, with more information available at www.us.fulbrightonline.org.
The final selection will be made by the presidentially-appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Winners of the 2009-10 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships are currently conducting research abroad on their self-designed projects, each centered on an aspect of international musical culture. The winners were chosen through a multi-tiered, merit-based selection process beginning with field and discipline merit reviews by U.S. and foreign academic leaders and area experts. Each has been sharing her or his experiences with peers via video reports, blogs and podcasts on mtvU and http://fulbright.mtvu.com.
The 2009-10 Fulbright-mtvU Fellows are:
Andrew Magill, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with a B.A. in Cultural Studies in May 2009, is traveling to Malawi to work with the UNC Malawi Project and AIDS organizations to video-record narratives of Malawian families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Andrew is collaborating with Peter Mawanga, a well-known musician and social activist, to develop a concept album whose sales will benefit AIDS social service networks.
Michael Silvers, a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA, is traveling to Brazil to study the relationship between the culture of forró, a kind of popular dance music, and the climate of northeastern Brazil. Working with Vila Estúdio, a recording studio in Fortaleza, Ceará; accordionists from around the state; and a quadrilha square dance ensemble, he is exploring the ways in which climate change and drought have impacted how and why people make music.
Rod Solaimani, who graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Foreign Policy in 2008, is traveling to Morocco to study and participate in the Afro-Arab-Gnawa-Western musical exchange. A skilled percussionist, he is researching the impact of U.S.-Moroccan musical partnerships in three cities, use his findings in local high school music curricula and promote cross-cultural collaboration with a student concert.
Tina Wadhwa, who graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BA in Political Science and Economics, is traveling to India to create a documentary exploring the impact and influence of Bollywood music on underprivileged youth in Mumbai. She is also developing the music and drama center of the Akanksha Foundation, while focusing on the role of music as a vehicle for collective expression and understanding among the children.
-BAM
Stardeath and White Dwarfs talk about what they owe The Flaming Lips
Stardeath and White Dwarfs
The Flaming Lips
In an interesting interview with the London Times, Dennis Coyne, frontman of Oklahoma City experimental rockers Stardeath and White Dwarfs, talks about what his band owes to fellow Oklahoma City-based rockers The Flaming Lips.
Of course, Dennis Coyne is the nephew of the Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne, and before forming Stardeath, he was a roadie and “bubble tech” for the Lips.
“When they were shooting the cover for their first EP, my dad brought me along, as he was taking some of those pictures,” Dennis, who was 18 months old when they shot the art for the Lips’ 1984 debut, told the Times. “I’d be riding my bike as they practised for their first shows at the back of the office-furniture business my grandparents used to own.”
His father, Kenny, raised him after his mother left when he was 4, Dennis Coyne told the newspaper.
“My dad is one of the greatest guys in the world, and so is Wayne. He’s such a great artist and great uncle that I can’t imagine it not influencing every decision I’ve made,” he told the Times.
The Times also talked to Wayne Coyne, referred to in the story as “the eccentric uncle figure for a whole generation of experimental American rock acts,” about the Lips’ double-album “Embryonic,” due out next week.
“Some of it, I can’t believe it’s us playing. We didn’t do it with discipline, professionalism and skill, we did it like drug addicts — although we’re not drug addicts — playing music as if we were going to throw it all away,” says of “Embryonic.”
-BAM
BAM Column: Miranda Lambert, Flaming Lips, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith releasing fall CDs
Miranda Lambert
From Tuesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Fall offers must-have new music
For Oklahoma music fans, fall holds the promise of fantastic new offerings.
The year has already seen the release of big-time albums from Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Samantha Crain, Rodney Carrington and St. Vincent, all artists with state ties. Even the late Woody Guthrie had a four-disc box set, “My Dusty Road,” released last month.
But even more major records from Okies are still to come this autumn, starting today.
If the title is any indication, firebrand Miranda Lambert will keep on rebelling against the country music establishment with her third album, “Revolution,” which drops today. The Tishomingo singer-songwriter already has notched one stunning brokenhearted ballad, “Dead Flowers,” from the new record.
Toby Keith
Norman star Toby Keith has raised eyebrows and raced up the charts with “American Ride,” the title track of his new album, due out Oct. 6. Last week, the single reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Country Songs chart. Riding the momentum of the politically charged video, the song has become his most buzz-worthy track since the 2001 hit “Courtesy of the Red, White And Blue.”
Also on Oct. 6, country band Rascal Flatts, which includes Joe Don Rooney of Picher, will offer new bonus content on a limited edition re-release of its “Greatest Hits Vol. 1.”
Flaming Lips
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips will deliver something new on Oct. 13: their first-ever double-album, “Embryonic.” The Lips performed “Convinced of the Hex” recently on “The Colbert Report” and debuted last week the video for “I Can Be a Frog.” If these tracks are any indication, we can expect many surreal delights from the Lips’ latest project.
Carrie Underwood
And recent Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee Carrie Underwood is sure to delight her legion fans with the Nov. 3 release of her hotly anticipated third album “Play On.” The Checotah native put out the first single, “Cowboy Casanova,” as a digital track last week, and it took only 24 hours for the sassy cautionary tale to crack iTunes’ top five list.
The fall is still young, so we may see more Oklahoma artists adding to the list of autumn’s must-have albums. Hopefully, state music lovers have been saving their pennies.
-BAM
